Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose once-bright political future was all but destroyed over an affair with his biographer, has agreed to plead guilty to sharing classified material with her, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a controversial address to a joint meeting of Congress to mount an unprecedented challenge Tuesday to the Obama administration’s attempts to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, calling it a grave threat to peace in Israel and the world.

More top headlines

Combat casualties, desertion and other issues have left the Afghan National Army the smallest it has been since 2011, even as the country’s security forces face their first fighting season without major international military support.

Cmdr. Ed Handley was described as one of the Navy's "superstars." Then he and two other senior ship leaders were found guilty of violations at a commodore's mast. Handley is now fighting to get his punitive letter of reprimand rescinded and hoping to resume his shot at command.

U.S. officials are increasingly worried that terror groups such as the Islamic State will recruit new foot soldiers from among the 11.4 million Syrians displaced by the country’s civil war, according to the president’s top intelligence adviser.

The House passed a bill late Monday that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary to recoup bonuses from senior executives implicated in manipulating patient wait-time data last year and other wrongdoing.

A fitness supplement that was twice pulled from exchange store shelves, first following soldier deaths and then after an outbreak of liver disease, has now been found to contain the active ingredient in the prescription drug Prozac, the Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday.

In the coming months, the Air Force is expected to award a $55 billion contract for the next-generation bomber, which would begin flying in the mid-2020s. But that's about all the Air Force will say about the program, which has been cloaked in a veil of secrecy rivaling the jet's stealthy ability to creep past enemy lines. With so little known about it, there is growing concern about the system's cost.

The military judge presiding at the USS Cole death-penalty trial ordered the Pentagon to replace the senior official and his staff overseeing the war court process, ruling that a since-revoked requirement for judges to live at Guantánamo until a trial is over appeared to be unlawful influence.

In December, this former U.S. servicemember travelled to northern Iraq, where he joined a growing band of foreigners leaving their lives in the West behind to fight with newly formed Christian militias. The leaders of those militias say they've been swamped with hundreds of requests from veterans and volunteers from around the world who want to join them.

For decades, San Diego's ties to the military — it has the West Coast's largest Navy base — overshadowed any relationship with Mexico, making it easy to ignore what was happening to the south. Today the region is represented by the CaliBaja Bi-National Mega-Region Initiative, a partnership of economic-development groups. Prominent in that collective is 3D Robotics Inc., North America's largest drone manufacturer.

Attention is being focused on whether to grant Self-Defense Forces troops more authority to use weapons during international cooperation activities, in talks on new legal arrangements on national security between the ruling coalition parties.

Backed by Iranian-supported Shiite militias, Iraqi forces launched a large-scale offensive Monday to retake Saddam Hussein's hometown from the Islamic State group, the first in a series of campaigns to try to reclaim large parts of northern Iraq from the Sunni extremists.

Senators are trying to block the Air Force from moving 18 A-10 Thunderbolts into its backup fleet, saying it amounts to a “backdoor divestment” as lawmakers continue to debate the future of the aircraft.

ANALYSIS

New Defense Secretary Ash Carter goes to Capitol Hill to discuss the Pentagon’s budget request Tuesday and Wednesday in his first hearings since being confirmed as defense secretary last month. He goes in with a stronger hand than any new secretary in memory.

GALLERY

The Afghan army is waging its largest-ever solo offensive against the Taliban, hoping to strike a decisive blow ahead of the spring fighting season and prove it can rout the insurgents without the aid of U.S. and NATO combat troops.